Newcastle v Harlequins, 04/03/2011

By Leipziger
March 3 2011

Following the win at Leeds on Sunday, the Falcons will look to keep their revival going by beating Harlequins at Kingston Park tomorrow night. A win will take us at least 11 points ahead of Leeds ahead of their match with Irish on Sunday, a healthy advantage indeed.

This is of course the first part of a double-header against the Londoners, as we visit the Stoop for an LV= Cup semi-final next week, although should we win that competition we still need to make sure we stay in the Premiership to take our place in the Heineken Cup.

Even though we still have to play Leeds at KP, I cannot see them winning three more games than us in the rest of the season, so victory tomorrow night should make our top-flight status secure.

Harlequins come north having lost their last two away matches in the league, at Exeter and London Irish. After a horrific run of form, Irish followed up beating the Falcons in Reading with a 15-9 defeat of Quins on Saturday. Neither side was able to score a try but Chris Malone and Tom Homer out-kicked former Falcon Rory Clegg to secure the win.

Clegg was making only his second Premiership start of the season, but since moving from KP to the Stoop in the summer of 2009 the amateur Prince Harry double (possibly) now has 131 points in 12 starts and 19 replacement appearances for the quartered ones.

Also in Conor O’Shea and John Kingston’s team at the Madejski Stadium was Pete Browne, who by all accounts seems to be having a good season in the Quins second row, making eight starts so far including against his former Newcastle team-mates at the Stoop in our first cup meeting in November. Indeed he has now started the last five matches.

Another tenuous Falcons link is scrum-half Karl Dickson, the brother of our former number nine Lee.

Our record against Harlequins at Kingston Park has been a mixed one over the years. We are unbeaten in the last three meetings in the North East, a 17-17 draw last season following wins in the previous two years. However, after Quins’ promotion in 2006, there was the horrific televised Friday night match in the November of that year, which the visitors won 3-14.

A win tomorrow night, coupled hopefully with Irish winning at Headingley on Sunday, will take the pressure off the Falcons going to the Stoop for the semi-final. With Danny Care and Nick Easter still with England, Martin Johnson has done his bit. Lets give the team some big support, they deserve it after Sunday.

The Falcons stick with most of the same team that beat Leeds, although Euan Murray replaces Kieran Brookes who drops to the bench, and Brent Wilson is back in place of injury victim Will Welch. Alex Gray will hope to make a league debut from the bench:

15 Jeremy Manning

14 Luke Fielden

13 Luke Eves

12 James Fitzpatrick

11 Alex Tait

10 Jimmy Gopperth

9 Micky Young

1 Jon Golding

2 Matt Thompson

3 Euan Murray

4c James Hudson

5 Andrew Van der Heijden

6 Tim Swinson

7 Brent Wilson

8 Ally Hogg

16 Rob Vickers

17 Grant Shiells

18 Kieran Brookes

19 Mark Wilson

20 Alex Gray

21 Chris Pilgrim

22 Tane Tu'ipulotu

23 Tom Catterick

Quins team:

15 Mike Brown

14 Tom Williams

13 Ugo Monye

12 Jordan Turner-Hall

11 Ollie Lindsay-Hague

10 Rory Clegg

9 Dave Moore

1 Ceri Jones

2 Joe Gray

3 James Johnston

4 Ollie Kohn

5 Pete Browne

6 Maurie Fa’asavalu

7 Will Skinner

8c Chris Robshaw

16 Chris Brooker

17 Joe Marler

18 Mark Lambert

19 Tomas Vallejos

20 Chris York

21 Ben Urdapilleta

22 Tom Casson

23 Ross Chisholm

Newcastle v Harlequins, 04/03/2011

Posted by: FalconsRugby.org.uk (IP Logged)

Date: 03/03/2011 12:54

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